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Xbox | Simulation | Thrillville

Boxart for Thrillville
Thrillville 17 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 3.00
  • SOUND: 2.50
  • CONTROL: 3.50
  • FUN FACTOR 2.50
  • AVG USER SCORE 3.8
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 2.5

Hands-On: Thrillville

Hands-On by Chris Morell | 09/14/2006 | 12:23:34 PM PST

It's Roller Coaster Tycoon for the rest of us.

If you're a theme park enthusiast, who just can't get enough roller coaster time, you might like to spin the turnstile to Thrillville. This light-hearted romp challenges you to use your imagination to first improve theme parks and then eventually build your own.

Killjoys Not Allowed

The game's designed by Frontier, the same folks who developed Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. Just like that classic set up, Thrillville is all about managing and maintaining your own happy little kingdoms.

A simple story kicks off the challenge. Your nutty uncle recruits you to help him manage five amusement parks that are in various stages of disrepair. Improving the parks gets progressively more challenging, and each one will have 30 missions that run the gamut from cleaning up spilled soda to building a mind-blowing roller coast ride.

The key to improving your park is talking to customers. You'll start the game by trekking around your property looking for fun seekers to chat up. Sometimes patrons just give you helpful ideas for park improvements; other times they present key missions for the game.

Roller Coaster

Building games and adding rides is where all the fun is. You can create a ton of classic rides like Ferris wheels, tilt-a-whirls, and merry-go-rounds. Moreover, many of the park games channel classic video games from the past including platform challenges, first-person shooters, and overhead racing games.

Of course, the roller coaster is the star attraction, and building yours is the ticket to success. The coaster construction tool looks slick and easy to use. Imaginative gamers should have heart stopping, stomach churners up and running in no time.

You're also going to get the opportunity to ride on your creation via several selectable views. First-person view (as you can imagine) is the most fun; but be careful; Thrillville's animation and graphics don't ease up on the "urp" factor. But at least you should be pretty good at cleaning up a mess, if you have to.


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